Use half whole wheat and half unbleached flour, add 3/4 cup raw shelled sunflower seeds, and shortening made partially with cottonseed oil. In the early 80's, we used Snowdrift shortening (a Hunt-Wesson brand), but can't find it nowadays. I noticed Walmart's Great Value brand has simular ingredients. Cottonseed oil gives a better flavor, and gives the cookie a crusty outside, but still chewy inside. Make your own brown sugar by simply adding 1 tablespoon of molasses to each cup of granulated white sugar.

If you are purchasing your ingredients outside of the U.S. you will find that flour varies greatly in other countries as far as the size of the grains. It can make a big difference in the final product if you use too fine of a grain of flour in cookies in particular as flour is the structure for your cookies. I found when living in France that the type 45 was what I should use with my cookies. Type 55 is best for yeast cooking and fluide flour was the finest grained that was great for sauces, much like Wondra brand flour is in the U.S. Baking powder is also not the same in France as it is in the states, it doesn't rise as well. I am guessing it is in the mix of baking soda and dry acid--the French don't generally use baking soda in their cooking, so you have to look for it in a pharmacy.

Toll House Cookies I: During WWII Toll House cookies were a rare treat becaue eggs, sugar and butter were heavily rationed. ('Oleo' was some kind white, firm fat fat that came with a packet of dye to be kneaded in by hand.) My mom and several neighbors pooled ingredients bought with ration coupons, and the cookies were distributed among the contributing families. For the fat, we used only Crisco (not rationed, as far as I remember). Perhaps because I was too young to be critical, I thought the cookies were wonderful!

Toll House Cookies II: Although we lived in a city, I spent much time during the war helping on my grandparents' farm. Grandma's 'Toll House' cookies were the best ever, made with fresh eggs from her 'free range' chickens and butter hand churned from the thick cream that rose to the top of the milk hand-squeezed from her milk cows. No chocolate chips were available locally, so G'ma chopped up squares of baking chocolate. The results, while not the 'real thing' were absolutely delicious.

I had not made Toll House cookies in years and attempted them recently. How hard could it be, right?! Anyone should be able to follow simple directions. You can imagine my disappointment when they turned out flat and crispy. I prefer them thicker and softer. What made it worse is that I was making them because my new boyfriend loves them and kept hinting around for me to make him some. Way to make a first impression with my baking skills....not! Of course he ate them and said they were good but I knew different and was determined to redeem myself.

I realized that my problem was that in order to save time, I had nuked the 2 sticks of salted butter and they got over melted. I tried again a few days later, letting the butter soften at room temperature for about an hour, but got the same results.

After reading a lot of the tips on this site, I tried again. Third try's a charm, right? In my case, it absolutely was! These are the best Toll House cookies I've ever tasted. Variances I made were using 1/2 salted butter and 1/2 butter flavored Crisco instead of all butter, using a 1/2 cup more flour, and using 2 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla. I hand mixed instead of using beaters and kept the dough in the fridge between batches. I only had jumbo eggs on hand so I used 1 1/2 eggs to compensate.

These cookies taste extra sweet because of the extra vanilla and remind me of Mrs. Field's. If you're not a fan of extra sweet, try 2 teaspoons of vanilla instead of the 2 1/2 I used or the 1 teaspoon called for.

Thanks to everyone for the helpful tips; I'll invite you all to the wedding!

I love chocolate chip cookies and cookies in general but cannot stand this recipe. I find it to be way too sweet and the cookies a bit too crispy and crumbly for my liking, so I altered this recipe. Instead of 3/4 cup white and brown sugar I kept the 3/4 cup BROWN sugar and downsized the 3/4 white sugar to 1/2 cup WHITE sugar. I also add 2 teaspoons up to 1 Tablespoon of vanilla. I find that this makes a much more chewy dense cookie and it tastes great!

I'd really like to know how to make the thin chewy looking cookies from your first picture. I love them that way but have only had them turn out once or twice that way myself. What am I doing wrong?!?! Mine usually turn out more cake-like and I follow the recipe exactly. Does altitude have anything to do with it?

I'd really like to know how to make the thin chewy looking cookies from your first picture. I love them that way but have only had them turn out once or twice that way myself. What am I doing wrong?!?! Mine usually turn out more cake-like and I follow the recipe exactly. Does altitude have anything to do with it?

The primary contributor for the cakey texture of cookies is the proportion of flour to butter. How are you measuring your flour? Using a cup and straight edge to level is a poor way to measure flour since a cup of flour can vary from less than 125 g to 200 g depending on how settled the flour is. Since the recipe calls for 2-1/4 cup flour (about 280 g), scooping out of the bag without having sifted the flour could very likely result in a 160g per cup scoop yielding 360 g (which results in the other recipe that is more cakey). Since flour settles over time or might get stirred up, I would suspect that is the reason for the inconsistency.

If you're measuring your flour accurate by using a scale, then the problem might be the temperature of the butter and dough when it hits the oven. In general, the warmer it is to start with, the more it will spread.

The primary contributor for the cakey texture of cookies is the proportion of flour to butter. How are you measuring your flour? Using a cup and straight edge to level is a poor way to measure flour since a cup of flour can vary from less than 125 g to 200 g depending on how settled the flour is. Since the recipe calls for 2-1/4 cup flour (about 280 g), scooping out of the bag without having sifted the flour could very likely result in a 160g per cup scoop yielding 360 g (which results in the other recipe that is more cakey). Since flour settles over time or might get stirred up, I would suspect that is the reason for the inconsistency.

I find it contradictory that an engineer would compose recipes in an imprecise and antiquated system of cups and teaspoons.
An engineer would formulate recipes in baker percentages, which is a more precise method and it also has the advantage of being able to scale easily.

Yes, I realize most readers employ cup and teaspoon measurement, but an engineer should first write the recipe in bakers percentages then give the recipe in the approximate cups and teaspoons.

The most frustrating thing is to find a great site like yours and then have to convert a desired recipe to bakers percentages.

Allright, count me among the ones who believe the old Massachusetts lady used butter in her CCC recipe, but there is another possibility...lard...why would she maybe not have used lard? After all she may not have had butter in her larder, she may have only had lard in her larder.

Sorry, but I like my cookies flat, not fat. I am also like the other poster who said maybe he could help with his comment and his comment was that he "liked eating chocolate chip cookies". I can help that way as well.

This is a great forum. I am an engineer and its nice to see it engineer friendly....but I agree shouldn't the recipe be shown in BP's?

For you who are sifters of flour and who stick by it rigidly, you may be getting a flat cookie because of the way less amount of flour you get when you sift. If I weigh my level cupful of sifted flour I never get more than 110 grams. So I give you the next paragraph which is the converse of this paragraph:

125 grams all-purpose flour makes a cupful? Actually you cannot put 125 grams of aerated all-purpose flour into a measuring cup without tamping or tapping the cup on the countertop or squishing a bit to get it all in there. I suppose that the standard for 125 grams per cup is a good standard, but the only good way to get that is to weigh it, in my opinion. Don't use the cup.

I would forget about the sifter unless you keep your flour long enough to get weevils in it. In my opinion the only real use for a sifter came from the days when people were so poor that they couldn't afford to replace their flour when it got old and they used it unhappily to get the weevils out. I still use one but it is because of my eyes; I can't see all that well anymore and sometimes need to check my flour for weevils to see if I need to toss it. Common sense tells me that that was all the sifter was ever really used for.

Now if you guys are ending up with a flat cookie and you decide logically to add more flour, you really need to know whether you are adding more flour on top of a 110 gram per cup measures or maybe 125 gram per cup measures or even the 150 grams or more that you may get from a scooped cup. I can guarantee you that if you use scooped out cups of packed flour and you are still ending up with flat cookies, something else is definitely wrong, because a scooped out cup obtained from stored, settled flour is going to yield fat cookies. Personally, I don't know what all the hubub is over wanting fat cookies. To me if you use quite a lot of flour, you really can taste the flour. So if you are wanting to add more flour for a fatter cookie make sure you don't add so much that you get a flour-ry tasting cookie.

What I really like is double chocolate CCC's and with those I surely like them better if they are flat, so I for one really don't understand the desire for fat, cakelike chocolate chip cookies.

I am 50 years old and have 10 children. CCC is their favorite.
I buy regular butter and never add any additional salt to the recipe.
Everyone who tastes my cookies wants the recipe.
I only use the Original Toll House Recipe with real vanilla, and no salt.

Just exactly what is the purpose of adding salt to the recipe? Will it imporve the recipe?

Just exactly what is the purpose of adding salt to the recipe? Will it imporve the recipe?

Salt adds another flavor dimension to the cookies. Next time you make CCC, add a pinch of salt into the batter (perhaps just one tray's worth) and bake as you normally would. If you put just the right enough, you'll find that the cookie tastes a little sweeter, a little stronger than normal and you shouldn't be able to readily identify the change as saltiness. Some people prefer cookies with a bit more salt than others (just as some prefer more sweet or more chewy) but I encourage trying out the use of salt in chocolate chip cookies at least once. You might find that to be your new secret ingredient